Friday, 16 May 2008

About this blog. . .

UN PORTRAIT DE LA VIE MODERNE: this one in particular is being painted by me. Medium: words on a lit screen.

Away from the computer, I am a painter in the more traditional sense, which, furthermore, means that when I am not devising ways and reasons to cover canvas with paint, I am often thinking about things such as "the role of art in society"-- past, present, and future-- and culture in general. In the town where I have resided for the past several years of my life, Huntsville, Alabama, USA, any given member of the Humanities plays something of a cameo; Huntsville is better known for rockets than for poetry. I do not say this with scorn, of course, but I do find it ironic that in a place made famous by men who facilitated the exploration of the cosmos many people seem uninterested in exploring their own souls. Instead, the deceptively shiny and the superficial. The general and the pointless.

. . . This may apply to some people more than others, some towns and regions more than others, and indeed it is not a new criticism by any means, but I am continually alarmed to see wasted opportunities turning into wasted time, wasted space, frustrated ambitions, and wasted lives. No wonder, then, that when many people finally do allow themselves to think, to feel, and to explore, they hardly know how to do so. They show themselves only as sick, perverse, sometimes merely disgustingly pathetic, sometimes disgustingly frightful.

These things having been said, I return to this blog's raison d'être; the love of culture, art, literature, music, wisdom, refinement, the enjoyment of beauty, and all other things that are wonderful and worthwhile. My greatest hope is to paint an educated and enlightening portrait of life and thought, as it is, as it can be, in a flourish of keystrokes. . .